Small World Problems

 

One of the problems with this isolation thing is that as your world gets smaller little things start to really get to you. My brain break has been my afternoon puzzle session but now even that's been spoiled.

There is a piece missing. I've spent four days trying every single piece over and over again with no luck. I was in a total tizzy all day over it. 

I searched all day for it. It was not on my plastic floor.

I didn't vacuum it up. I searched all my aprons, my pockets, my shoes while imagining some sweaty dude at the puzzle factory having a laugh at my expense. I even had to talk myself out of going on ebay and buying the same puzzle just to get the piece. 

I didn't buy another puzzle but what we did do was go to Dunkin to get some more donuts. They didn't kill us last time so I was game for another half dozen. Eating and sleeping seem to be the only two things I can handle at the moment. That's not good. 

I am also really ticked at Blogger today. First it didn't want to upload my photos in the right order. I had to go back and do them one at a time. Then it wanted to turn all my text into links. I never could get any of it spaced right. I just gave up. 

Tiny Needles and More

With all the excitement we've had, I've only made it half way across the lawn this week. At this rate I'll be somewhere in my 90's before this thing is done. I know slow and steady wins the race. I've got the slow. I need the steady.

I did get another of Dad's Nine Patch blocks quilted. That makes four so far. I didn't get much done this week but at least I'm no longer having to wrap my fingers in electrical tape. 

I've had more going on in the card room this week than in the sewing room. I had cards to make for my Aunt and Dad's lady friend who I haven't been able to see since the pandemic. I send them a card from time to time to let them know I'm still thinking of them.

We also have several birthdays coming up this weekend. I was trying to come up with a kitty card for Daughter but so far no luck. I like the kitty but not much else. It was back to the drawing board with this one.

This is better. I heat embossed the kitties and cut them out and glued them on a kitty background that I had made by using some Versamark on the cardstock. Middle Son's birthday is Saturday so it's back to work on something for him.

A Rude Awakening

Don't anyone ever bad mouth the USPS again. Yesterday morning, under a tornado warning, with a waterspout spotted in the bay and headed right towards us, with Isasia's rain coming down in buckets and its wind howling like a crazed beast, our post guy came all the way down our long driveway and left a giant box of cat food at our door. We heard the thud as we were scurrying to take cover and thought "what fresh hell is this" only to have a good laugh that someone risked their life for a case of Friskies chicken and tuna.

Our alerts woke us up before dawn so we gathered up what was important (like my knitting) and headed down to our safe space in the downstairs hall. We lost power several times but it always came back on which is a very good thing.  I'd probably die right now without the AC. We went a week without power after Isabel and it was not fun.

The word of the day was MUD. Our neighbors new remodel job has left their yard a field of bare ground which washed down our driveway in the deluge and made it's way down my sidewalk right to my front door. What a mess. The Mister was not happy.

It was a three Croc day. Every where we went there was mud and I always seemed to be stepping in it. Pup got two baths.

The yard is a disaster. We've got huge limbs and branches all over the place but it's not safe enough to go out there yet. Who knows what may still fall. 

The tornado that we were watching head towards us came ashore down the road in Dad's old neighborhood. We saw on the news several house were damaged. We only lost our poke berry plants. The side yard is full of them all laying over like this one. You can see the circular rotation of the wind when you follow the direction of the broken plants. We were very lucky.

All the outdoor kitties are accounted for. We couldn't get them in. They will never come in. I'm sure they are thinking the same thing we are today...."we've seen worse". We sure have. It's always something around here. Ice storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes....we've seen'em all.

We took a ride down to the water to see how it fared. The bay was  brown. It must have been really churning at some point but it looked nice and calm now. Yesterday afternoon was the first nice day we've had in ages. It felt weird to be outside.

The town was flooded, of course. It always floods when they say we are going to flood. We've seen worse flooding too. I've seem the Bay send waves over the top of those buildings. It can really do some damage when it wants to. Happily, yesterday it didn't really want to. 

The day wasn't a total loss. I did finish the socks I had on the needles while we were hiding in the basement. Now I need to find the energy to cast on their mates. It may take a while.

The I's Have It

I don't like storms whose names start with I. Irene and Isabelle really did a lot of damage a few years back. One of them pushed our boardwalk and the beach front houses two blocks back. We still have two massive black walnuts out back that came down that night. I don't like it at all when you see our little town's name on weather maps that look like this. They never talk about us at all unless it's something awful. 

All Sunday night long my phone and bedroom dot were blowing up with warnings about Iasais and the thunderstorms we were already having. I didn't get much sleep. 

My poor Alexa wore her self out with dire warnings and notifications all day Monday. As if the pandemic isn't enough to worry about. 2020 can you get any worse? I'm sure it can. I shouldn't have said that. 

While The Mister was cleaning out gutters I gave the house a good vacuuming and put a pot of beans on the stove to simmer anticipating having no electricity. No electricity also means no water from the well so we have to fill up every bucket we can find and put them in the bathtubs to flush the toilets. Good times.

Oh, well. Hopefully by the time you read this it's all over and we will have dodged the bullet. If not, I'll be back when the lights are back on. In the meantime here's Pup in her "rolly".  She likes to sit in it while I vacuum.  I'm really hoping we don't have to spend the night in the under stairs closet again. Sigh.....

Making Way

I hit the cutting board hard this weekend. I really needed to get the hexie top done. I am so over it. 

It's close but it's not actually done. I want to add another band of sashing around the whole thing to sit the binding on. Since I have none of the block backing left I had to order a few different yards to see about matching so it'll have to wait for now. That's fine with me. We need a break from each other. 

What I want to work on is something simple and fast. Bits and pieces of the adorable You Are Amazing collection from Connecting Threads showed up in the mail this week. I see another little Disappearing Nine Patch in my future. 

Infused

I've been shaking up this bottle of nettle fused olive oil for over 6 weeks so it was time to turn it into soap. I kept it on the kitchen window so I wouldn't forget about it.

I strained it and let it sit over night and strained it again in the morning.

It made a rich, olive colored batter.

I had too much fun with the pour. I used a big bowl and made a big mess.

I didn't include very many hard oils so it didn't set up very quickly. I couldn't do much with the top except throw some of the leftover batter on it. It's another vegan soap. I only added a bit of coconut milk.

I used clay and charcoal to give it color and added a few drops of essential oils. I was looking for a medicinal scent. This summer I'm all about no nonsense soap that makes you feel like you got all the Covid cooties off.  

It took 2 days of sitting in the mold before I could get it out. It's oddly soft. I did use twice the amount of olive oil and no hard butters so I should have expected it. It looks lovely and it smells just like I hoped it would. Now I just have to wait 6 weeks to see if it's a keeper. 

Victory Garden

We're still rolling the carts along following the sun. 

They look pretty sad at the moment. It's been a brutal summer for container gardening. 

My poor tomatoes are splitting from the inconsistent water issues. I think I've killed them with kindness by watering too much. I just hate to see them wilted.

This is my biggest harvest yet. They are not pretty....

....but they taste wonderful. It's been a long time since I've had my own tomato, warm from the sun, on a sandwich for lunch. I'm calling this a win right here and now. Even if this is all I get, it's been totally worth all the work and expense.